The Bushwhacking Experience

The other amazing experience I had was a total surprise to me. The day before, they had said I was going to go to the office to take pictures for the Architect. I had been to the Office which wasn't a big trip and I knew where to take pictures but I couldn't understand why their idea of going to the office to take pictures involved me getting up early and being gone for the whole afternoon.... I soon found out the hard way. I was dressed in casual shorts and a t shirt when we left. Before we left Cristobal handed me a machette which really should have been my clue to go put on pants but I kinda just assumed we would use it a little bit. I had my backpack and camera and ipod with me. My second warning sign was when we were starting to head toward the office we didn't turn onto the office road and continued past it where we started to hike up this path on the hill. Cristobal was fascinated with this plant he called “maura” which he said they use in soups. As we started hiking there were a few plants so he stopped to pick them and then caught up to me. As we hiked higher there were more and more plants and he got more and more ambitious with his collecting going more out of his way to collect leaves an stems. This contined to increased and I started to walk really slowly hoping he would still catch up to me. When I turned around the next time he was nowhere to be found. At that moment I wasn't worried cause I knew what he was doing so I just waited in the shade and listened to my ipod some. After about two songs I still hadn't seen him so I started to wonder. Around 10 mins into his absense I yelled out donde esta? And I heard a faint oi and then “perame” which meant permit me or kinda I'll be done soon just a little longer. I listened to about 3 more songs and then came Cristobal from out of the valley canyon thing with a shirt full of maura.

The interesting part is that it seemed normal to him that he would just disappear for 20 mins and he didn't seem to be worried about time (third warning sign) We continued our hike upwards where we were almost to the top of where the erosion had started. He said he wanted to go up and around the erosion because through the valleys (I think they were more like canyons or sand) was harder. Well this plan never got carried through because I took out my camera to take a picture of the sand canyon and he said oh come down here for a better picture so I did and then he decided that we could climb up the other side pretty easily so he went down into the valley. I followed him and we began to scale the otherside which is very difficult in sand canyons because your steps tend to fall out from under you so you really have to use your upper body and find plants that have decent roots to hold onto.

We got part way up the other side when cristobal took out his machette and started hacking his way up cutting a path through the part bushy area and part black berry bush.... Oh also there are lots of ants in these locations and you don't notice them until many of them start biting your leg or arm furiously. Its not that bad but it gets annoying after a while. So we made it up the first canyon and from our view on the other side it looked like there was just one but as we got to the top there was another one right there infront of us so you can guess how excited I was for that (not very)... at this point I knew I was in for a long adventure and I just enjoyed it because Cristobal reached into his backpack and pulled out a rope to descend into the canyon. He went first and then I went second and hit many branches and things on the way down. We attached the rope to a tree root at the top and from there descended. Getting up the second one wasn't to difficult and we managed to do it little rope assistance. After every canyon Cristobal said that it would be the last one. Around the third or fourth canyon I realized he knew about as much as I did in this area of the forest. He did know the general direction we were heading though and for that I was grateful.

After the second canyon we bushwacked through jungle for about 20 feet and then reached the third canyon where we both descended with the rope one at a time and then cristobal climbed the other side and tied the rope to a tree for me to climb up. The 4^th was a pretty small one that we also used the rope for. Descending that one was fun because I almost slipped and fell of the canyon cliff. If I hadn't been holding onto a tree the size of my finger I would have probably kept sliding (Aren't you glad I did this mom? going again soon...) . The 5^th was an interesting one because it was pretty easy to get into but the other side was quite steep. We actually didn't end up using the rope and instead we climbed using tree roots that were sticking out of the soil to climb to the top which was quite a fun experience.

Finally we got to our destination which was a shack about the size of half a room. It was Cristobals old house! He had a hammock that I rested in for a few mins while he sifted through the sand for the key to the lock on his house (why he put it in the sand I don't know).... he never found the key and so we debated breaking in but decided it wasn't worth it and we could return later.

We then continued on to the office which we could have walked to from our starting point in like 5 mins but instead we took the long adventurous way. I'm grateful for the experience but during the experience I must say I was quite confused and in shock by the experience as it was happening. After the second canyon I really wasn't surprised by what came next I just kinda went along with it and tried not to fall into the canyon or get bite by too many ants. Around the 4^th canyon I stepped on the log the was rotted and broke and a spider a little smaller than my hand ran out. It was black and fuzzy too (acutally quite cute).

I can now officially say I've been bushwhacking in El Salvador. Spanish: oyo- valley arana- spider, laso- rope cuidado- careful

What I learned:  

When they hand you a machette they mean business go put some pants  and shoes on.  

When they say they know where they are going.... they know the general direction but they might or might not have tried this before. 

Ants like to run up your arm and then all start biting you at once.  

Look at what you grab before you grab it to make sure it doesn't have spines.  Check if it will hold your body weight too also important!

Secrest Afuera!

The Apulo Experience.

Well I got to Apulo a little later than I had intended and just like El Gigante when I got there I felt pretty good and awake is but when I laid down on my bed I just couldn't help but dozing off for the mi morning. I woke up and had lunch. Here is the first place where I've met a stay at home dad. I guess its because Mirta is the president of ADECOI which is an awesome organization. The need some with ideas and things but I'll get to that in another post. Right now I'm just going to talk about my experience. Well the first few days at Mirtas were really nice and I really got to know the family. I'm not sure if its because my spanish is better or just that they are really warm and friendly here but I've really gotten to know them here and I feel really at home. I decided to stay an extra week here before I go back to Apulo so a total of a little over two weeks which is pretty good for a community visit and I'm sure I'll come back to visit a weekend or so maybe. I still want to go back to El Bario because its where I felt extremely at home and I didn't even know much Spanish but here I really love as well. While I was living at Mirtas I did a lot of traveling and that's one of the hard things about living here in Apulo because its a huge spread out city along the lake. Its also killer hot here which doesn't help the walking everywhere. Its not cheap either to use the pickups if you are the only person on them its like 2 dollars to get a ride thats like a 10 min walk but when its this hot in the middle of the day or you have lots of stuff its sometimes worth it.

On the First day I went out with Javier and others hiking up the river bed to a place where there is like a big bird population like a bird sanctuary although its not really a sanctuary because people catch some birds and sell them as pets. It was a really great experience to see all houses and the destruction the erosion has caused in Apulo. We then went to see Javiers old house where he and his relatives lived before his borther (who lives in the states) gave money to their family to build a new house. After this crazy amount of walking we continued walking and went down to the lake where we saw the touristy shops and food places along the coast. It reminded me a lot of Lakeport because of the lake and lots of shops and places for tourists. We met up with Mirta and Fran and walked along the lakeside where we stopped at one of the lakeside booths and they bought me fried mini fish things which I probly shouldn't have eaten (as you will find out later in this post) but I did anyways. We then continued our walking journey as we went down to buy more fish for other meals (again probly shouldn't have eaten the fish) later on in the week. By the time we finished it was extremely hot and I remembered what it was like to want to wake up early to beat the heat. Oddly enough it was only 10am haha.

One of the most interesting things about the first few days was that they told me I was going to do a mountain of things here but in the first few days with the schools the principles weren't there so I couldn't help at the school and I hadn't gotten my individual classes worked up quite yet so I actually spent a lot of time just getting my plans canceled because they said that there would be school the next day when it got canceled but the first week it never worked out. Then we started talking with another school and ironically enough everyone showed up and wanted me to work on Tuesday so I worked at two different schools and had my classes after school which in total made 9 English classes in one day which was a crazy amount. At first it turned out to be disorganized organization which was really weird for me but I ended up getting busy enough eventually so I'm satisfied.

On one of the first days I was here Obama was visiting and like politics in the US it turned out to be overhyped and quite boring on the TV but I did watch a good amount of it. I think they showed Obama arriving on the airplane about 8 times in an hour while I was watching and he arrived earlier that morning. He then sat down to talk with Mauricio our FMLN president and they had a good conversation I think. From what I heard Obama is giving 200 million dollars to El Salvador to help work on the crime problem they have here. I think the biggest suprise was how big of a deal it was when the president of the US visited. Everyone got two days off of school and some of the rumors were that they did that to have less traffic in the cities so that the kids and poverty wouldn't be seen as much. I kinda got complained at a bit that Obama never visits the poorest areas but I really didn't know what else to say but I really don't fallow politics that much and I agree he should come visit here.

Apulo sadly enough was the first place that I got legitimately sick. I started feeling bad like the third day and then the 4^th I felt kinda better and the 5^th and 6^th (that weekend) is when I really got sick and couldn't really do a whole lot. On the 6^th day I somehow gave a lot of classes of English and then only got sick in the night before I went to sleep but it was not a very fun series of days. The cool part about it was that I've really been starting to make progress with english teaching I think. They have the tools to practice which is what my goal was so now all they need to do is make more sentences and practice more and more. I'm finding it frustrating because I wanted them to do more conversation but they really don't like to try to talk much so I kinda fell back on the writing in your notebook method that most people do here. I think I'm gonna try and work on speaking more soon but I just need to figure out how to get pronunciation through to them.

Speaking of pronunciation I've been doing many games and been making pronunciation much more fun. I introduced the I want to eat ate apples and bananas song which was quite fun the only problem is that I'm never in a place long enough to really start to teach and have grades. I also don't feel like I should give grades because I'm just a volunteer and I don't actually work with the school. Thats where the problem starts because its so hard to get people to participate here and many of them have just given up on school and are just here because their parents want them to be or they like one subject or they want to finish 9^th grade. To give you a perspective I out of a class of about 30 ninth grades two people did their homework from the last time I taught... If you have ideas of how I could have discipline and accountability when I'm not actually their official long term teacher please post or send me an email or facebook (deboodude@gmail.com) .

After the sick days the storm of work started. While I was sick and on the mend I had been talking with a school to see if I could go give classes but they principle wasn't there to give me the Okay and he didn't show up for 3 days or so. My family got in contact with another school farther away that had classes in the mornings and so we went to visit the 7^th day when I was feeling better. They said I could start tomorrow. That same day all the kids I'd been teaching who live close to me started really stepping up their involvement and I got organized to teach in different groups because if I teach grammer and sentences to kids its just way over their head and they really don't understand whats the you or he or she or we form. I formed about 4 groups so that increased my time I needed to teach if I wanted to have my students with any kind of frequency. That same night the other principle showed up and met with me and asked if I could come visit the school tomorrow which I said yes to because it was in the afternoon... This was the beginning of the crazy day...

On Crazy day I got up and went to the doctor to drop off my poo test I took to see if I had a parasite... (I don't! ) Then I went straight to the other school and taught the I want to eat eight apples and bananas song to 3 different classes which was a ton of singing and I'm surprised I didn't loose my voice but I did drink about 1.5 liters of water during that strech that morning. Then we walked back in the heat of the day and took the bus the rest of the way once we got to where the bus stops. We got back around 12:40 and I ate a quick lunch and continued on to the other school where I taught another 3 classes until 5pm (some classes are 45 mins and some are 1hr 30 mins) After this I came home for about 30 mins and then went off to teach my classes with my students where I had on small lesson and then we made papusas and danced and watched step up 3 in Spanish. Overall I really was never that tired during the day and I can't quite figure out why but I think I taught pretty well also.

I've been continuing with my classes the other days this week and its really turned out to be a productive week although I haven't had much time to rest or write my blog. I've witnessed some really crazy things while I've been here and this community has been especially eye opening to me because of the people I've met and the stories I've heard of the issues they are having here.   

Secrest Afuera!

Bus-y weekend

Okay so the second major bus adventure was today traveling to Apulo. There weren't any clowns or musicians on this one just food and drink vendors as usual.

The adventure began when I woke up at like 530ish and took a shower and got ready to go to the terminal with Jazmin since her school is close to there and I wanted someone to show me how it worked for the first time. I don't know if I've mentioned the buses from Suchi much but its the same kind of thing and its really quite entertaining. As a bus rolls buy or is stopping to turn around the guy hangs out the front door shouting where they are going like San Salvador San Salvador huey! But its usually really fast and hard to figure out what they are saying unless you are used to it. Like for example Alguilares sounds like Agilare! Algilare! With a hint of an s at the end. Anyways at the terminal you have all those people crowded into a small space so basically they are all shouting their bus and where its going so its quite funny to see everyone trying to get you to go on their bus.

I can't quite explain how they hang out the bus but they have a handle on the bus thats just for them to hang out and hang onto the bus by that handle so yeah its the norm here. They also shake their hand out the door sometimes when they are passing a group of ppl to see if they want this bus to stop. The guy who shouts is like the drivers helper cause he collects the money and tells him when to stop sometimes and this time he bought him food and stuff so I guess they work together most days. I think one day when I'm in Suchi I'm gonna ask the guy going to Alguilares if I can shout out his window when he turns the corner and stuff just to see what people will do when they see me (I think I'm pretty well known in Suchi by now) shouting Algilare Algilare!

Okay so now is the other fun part of the adventure the driving... It started with the Taxi which passed quite a lot of other cars on the way there and honestly they have no fear when it comes to passing cars its pretty crazy. The buses are exactly the same. At one point there was a a giante truck caring sugar cane going up a hill really slow. There were about 7 cars/trucks in between us and the truck but we tried to pass it anyways. We hit a stretch and we passed like 4 cars in one go and then barely made it back. Then we spent like 5 mins looking around the truck to see if there was room to pass. Oh btw the second car behind the truck was another bus going somewhere else but we were determined to pass two other cars, the bus and the truck. Well this is also where the bus driver helper came into play because when we were passing cars he would whistle at them to get over or let us come in if there was a car coming right for us (which there usually was). So one car finally passed the truck and then the other bus passed the truck and we were right on the buses tail so we passed him too. I felt bad because there was a small blue car in between the two buses while we were trying to pass the truck and we were probly 5 feet away from the car on average when we were trying to pass. One time we almost went for it but then backed off and almost hit the blue car on the side but we were like inches from him. Lets just say I will be happy to drive in California but I'm glad I'm not driving here haha. There was one time where we were super close to hitting cars and a few times we passed cars that went to the side a bit and on both sides we probly had about 6inches to 1foot of room on either side of our bus. Overall though it was a great adventure and I really like the buses. Its more of a fun experience than a scary one.

Sweet San Miguel Migration among other things

Today was the reunion with all the representatives of the communities... I was very pleased with myself

because I was able to communicate about a million times better than I could at the first reunion. I also liked this reunion because it was actually about me more than the other one was so I could actually help decided and give my opinion on the subject. The rest of the day turned out to be nice as well because I was actually able to skype with my parents which I didn't think I could do with just a USB internet card thing. I got to talk with them and they helped me figure out my life (which is very complicated at the moment with being in El Salvador and trying to get settled with college next year and applications for summer jobs and planning the summer when I get back home and talking about things I'm doing here that I need to communicate to the people in the US like about Salu Miel and hammocks and such. For instance the community in El Gigante has bee colonies where they make a ton of organic honey but they are looking for more people to buy it. They also have this product called salu miel (miel is honey) which is like a preventive suplement thing that keeps you healthy. I'm bad at explaining it but its pretty cool stuff. Anyways I'll make a separate post about that later.

As for now I would like to talk about the crazy (crazy isn't a strong enough word but I promised Oscar I wouldn't cus on my blog. Love you brother haha! ) day I've had today.

The bus adventure was like three stories in one and I'm sooooooooo thankful that I had someone with me to show me the way because I most definitely would have gotten lost. Anyways so the adventure started in Joquitique where we walked to the bus stop where there were also motor taxis which are like the cars that are in all the movies about india. They are little three wheeled electric ( I think) cars that are open on both sides and fit about two people in the back seat. We didn't ride those but I figured I should mention them... I got on the bus and the adventure began. First it was pretty normal except for it being super crowded as we got to San Francisco. There were candy salesmen and women with not just candy and pretty much anything you can think of to buy like watermelon, mango, cashews, and a bunch of other stuff that most of it I can't tell what it is half the time. Of course there are also drink vendors. They walk down the middle isle squeezing past everyone because everyone is pretty well packed into the bus around halfway there. Then about half way there a blind guy with a guitar comes on the bus and stands in the isle and plays a song and sings. This caught me completely by surprise cause I thought he was just getting on the bus to ride it. Well the first thought was why isn't anyone standing up for him to give him a seat... and then he started playing and I figured that out but most people didn't pay much attention to him. Some people gave him some money after he was done but not a whole lot and I think he got off in San Francisco but I can't remember. After that we went to a gas station and a person dressed as a clown came on the bus. He started to tell jokes and did a few tricks and all of it was just plain crazy idk how else to describe it. I've never seen anything like this on a bus ever in my life but I'm pretty sure this is a normal occurrence because many people seemed disinterested like they've seen this thing a million times. They were definitely not as surprised as me even though I didn't let it show. I'm kinda curious about my next bus adventure and if it will be as interesting as this was I'm guessing it could be but this was one of the more interesting buses to say the least.

Then we took two other buses to get to the house which is where I am now. The second one was playing a movie like Vampires suck or scary movie where they just make fun of a bunch of movies all at the same time. I caught some of it where they were making your mama jokes but other than that I didn't really want to pay attention to it. They had the guys from 300 in it and I think there was a plot but there never really is with those kinds of movies. Then we took a mini bus a few blocks where we walked to the house which was really close. The house is what I would expect a college house to be like I guess. I wasn't expecting it to be super clean or have tons of food so its pretty normal in my mind. I was surprised when I went to open a cabinet under the count and the whole door came off with it. I played it cool though and just put the door back in place before clelia came back into the room. Clelia was laughing and I think she might have been a bit embarrassed that my first bus experience was this crazy. I think she just wanted it to end and I know this isn't the first time this happened but I would like to ask how often people like this come on the bus. I've heard of joke tellers too which I think would be a pretty cool job but I'm very happy with my decision to go to college as well.

Well so the update for today is I couldn't go visit classes because its a private section of the university and they don't allow visitors. I also found out that if I could have visited classes all they are doing is taking finals haha so its not that exciting I guess. I did have a good time in San Migel though. I rested for the morning while everyone was at classes and played games and then in the afternoon when jazmin came back I took her out to lunch to talk about school and just get to know her better. We went to Pizza hut which has somehow miraculously turned into a sit down restaurant here in El Salvador. I didn't really care about the price cause I'm only in San Migel one day but I think the lunch was a little less than 20 dollars but totally worth it... don't get me wrong I'm really enjoying the traditional food here quite a lot but when I get a chance to eat something different when I know that for the next weeks I'll be eating the normal I think thats when you jump on that opportunity. We had lunch and had a really fun conversation about school, my life back home, differences, my spanish always seems to come up because I use spanglish words sometimes when I don't know the word and about half the time it works so its good to try but it leads to many good laughs. I've also gotten to the point where I can make jokes and be pretty much the same person I am in English as I am in Spanish which I really love.

I also forgot how nice it is to have a discussion with someone whos at the same point in life as you. Those two factors made my conversation with Yazmin that much more meaningful. I love to talk with Adults and kids but Adults sometimes don't know the technology or especially here they had such a different life with the war its hard to relate and with kids its hard to understand them sometimes and they aren't quite at my level of interests yet.

After lunch we wandered back and I had good conversations with Mercedes, Eric, Yazmin and Clelia about different topics like school, photos of me, their interests, what they think they'll do after college etc. I think I'll leave you all with the comment that is really hot here but I'm actually glad for a change in the weather although my sweatshirt will once again become my pillow for this leg of my journey.

-Secrest Afuera!

Tarde Testimonio

Well today was the day that we went to Honduras... It was very beautiful and the climate and trees reminded me of Yosemite in the highlands. It was quite chilly at times and I really quite enjoyed it. We went up to visit a friend of theirs where they had bought a small piece of property to make a casita for the summers just to come up for a weekend or something and to get away from life. We built a gate for the already made fence they had made on an earlier trip up here. We also finished the table they started the last time too. Overall it was a great experience and the culture of vacationing for Salvadorans is different than my family. They love to have food to eat. I think thats one of the main things with vacations for them. They bring tons of food and eat a lot and rest and talk and just descansar (rest/ sleep/watch the clouds, anything with not much movement involved.

We also went to visit this other community cooperative a little farther down the road in Honduras. We visited their office and dicussed the possible option of coming there on the trip. Its a very cool place and I wore my sweatshirt there in the mid afternoon (probly around 50/60 degrees). I made it pretty clear that I wasn't promising we would go there and that we already have a schedule and I don't know how much of it can be changed but I do like the place as a nice change of pace. The one thing is that from Joquitique its about an hour and a half drive on a dirt road so I'm pretty sure thats the deciding factor on that one but you never know I'll talk it over with Robert and show him my photos of the place. They have very nice places to stay but they aren't with the families (another minus in my book). Overall I really did like the place though and its a nice place to visit if you have the time.

Back on the subject of different vacations I found it odd that there was hardly any together time on this trip. The guys were together most of the time and the women were in the kitchen together but we didn't eat meals together entirely. I'm actually not sure when the women ate. I couldn't tell if it was after or before us but they were working and feeding us while we were eating which I'm not sure I like very much but its the culture and I'll swallow my American views on the subject for now. The trip up there was an hourish ride in the big four wheel vehicle that was very bumpy pretty much the whole time on a dirt, rock, gravel. It was an adventure. I was very happy with my decision to sit in the middle on the way back because my head didn't hit the side or the top of the car when we hit a bump which I rather liked. The scenary was very pretty and I enjoyed it all very much. I've found that Salvadorans are big on HOT food. Not Spicy hot but hot hot like totillas are only good when they are hot, beans (usually hot) , rice (hot), cheese (if it could be hot it would be), coffee (really hot). Cold Sandwiches and a hike for a vacation wouldn't fly with them I'm pretty sure. I've heard they all like to vacation next to water as well. I've never actually seen them go swimming much though so I can't understand why but thats what they love to do. They enjoy their vacationing and I have enjoyed it while I've been here as well so there are no complaints on this end. Simply trying to explain a different culture I'm learning.

Word of the Day: Cabal or Caval- just Central American apparently and its like exactly right or right on. Like when someone asks a question to clarify like “ soooo we are in Honduras now?” respuesta ( answer) -Caval hombre or just Caval. Tobogan- Slide Auacate (awa-cawte)- Avocado

Secrest Afuera!   

Hammocks!

I'm working on a plan for you people that will be coming on the trip. Elvias store has lovely hammocks and now is your and your friends opportunity to look and see what kind of hammock and esspecially what colors you want in your hammock if you want to buy one here. I will say that they are very comfortable and anyone you want I'm sure you'll be happy with.  I'm posting this from one right now!  

Okay well posting photos with this internet just plain doesn't work so if you are thinking you would like a hammock post a comment or let me know another way and we can work out costs and sizes.  The hammocks they make run from about 40- 100 dollars (I'm gonna get one that is about 45 and is small for my dorm) The price also depends on how many people are getting hammocks because of material cost etc  but they are very nice quality hammocks.  I will post pictures of them when I get the chance but I don't think I can with the internet that I have here. 

Siesta Synapse

 Okay well the next update on my life is that I've been having an amazing few days here at manelios. Its been extremely relaxing to be here in Joquitique an they are absolutely amazing with every detail. I sometimes wish they weren't as nice because I feel too much like a guest sometimes when they ask me what I want for dinner. They do like me and I'm going to try to help more once I find ways to help. I think today I'm going to try my hand at cooking a bit maybe making some totillas.

Yesterday we went on an excursion to San Francisco which was really cool to see the big city but I'm glad I live out here. Its much better to travel into the City than to live there. We went to the Supermarket which was a very small version of Safeway or whatever chain you have in your state. with a meat section and milk and other stuff in the isles. It didn't seem that much cheaper than the street venders which surprised me so the street venders must make not a whole lot of money from selling their stuff. Anyways we rode in the pickup again down and back which was really fun and I took pictures this time. We brought home a ton of groceries and fit them into our backpacks. The rest of the day we just relaxed... watched some TV talked. Cristobal (Manelio) showed me some pictures he had of the war and such. And we talked and got to know each other. Yoel and Edwin (Yoels husband) went out for hamburgers at this hotel and invited me along which was very nice of them. Edwin spent time in the LA for a while and so we talked about In-n-Out Burger some which was really fun. Elvia is going to teach me some cooking I hope today but its been fun getting to know all of them. Yoel is 8 months pregnant too so when the Trip comes the baby will be 3 months old at least thats what they said I didn't do the math but I think its more like 2 months anyways the point is that they will have a new Cristobal in the house.

This past day and a half have been really relaxing and energizing for me. In El Bario I was going to school everyday and doing a million things which I love too but I need a break sometimes to gather my thoughts. My plans for the next few days are: Tommorrow we are taking a trip to the Mountains around Honduras and such then on Sunday there is a meeting with all the members of the projects here. After that Barcelona plays Real Madrid at 1 and then I'm going to do something in the afternoon (haven't figured out what yet.) Monday I'm going to go with the students from here to San Miguel and visit classes. I'm going to stay the night at the student house and then the next day take the bus to Apulo where they can meet me and show me the different things I'll be doing where I'll be staying and such. I'll spend about a week in Apulo and then start my vacation adventure of about two weeks I think not sure yet. Then I'll come back for Semana Santa (Easter week) and hang out in Suchitoto and do various things like visit friends, meet new people. Live with my family in El Bario some, possibly go down to the lake with some of my students. Go to Alguilares and San Salvador one day and buy all the sports equipment I don't know I'll find something to do when school isn't in session.

My favorite words in Spanish: NOMBRE!- my translation of it is no hombre together kinda but it means like “no way” bastante (usually elongated) tons or a lot or more than enough suficente is enough. Burbuhas- bubbles just fun to say Que Barbaro! - Cool! Amazing! Interesting! Or how sad too sometimes. Que Chivo! Cool! Mostly just cool or Interesting.

SIDE NOTE. my family has decided that when Barbara comes here she needs to use the phrase Que Barbara! instead and my dad needs to use the phrase Que Barba!